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In 1802, 32 years old, the inescapable reality of his deafness finally silently crashing in on him (in an era before hearing aids, lip-reading or sign language*), Beethoven wrote a letter to his two brothers... (more↠)

Most questions in Life, the Universe and Everything don't fall into simple True/False categories. As much as I would have liked all my school exams to be entirely True/False questions, my teachers were too smart for that! (more↠)

What we listen for in music has changed substantially down through the ages. During Bach's day (the Baroque era), what marked a good composer was his capacity for 'invention' — that is, the variety of things he could do with one idea. Thus for them the 'fugue' — an entire piece based one melodic figure (the 'fugue subject') — was an iconic form of that age, and that same notion of deeply exploring one idea extended to other forms. (more↠)